Labour Market Overview

The Monthly Labour Market Report contains the most up to date labour market statistics from a range of household and business surveys, and administrative sources.

The latest report and associated tables can be accessed at Labour Market Report - November 2023

Publication of Labour Force Survey estimates

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published an improvement plan on 2nd November which outlines their plans to address concerns within the LFS and a publication plan for the UK labour market release on the 14 November 2023. It highlighted that ONS would not be publishing the unadjusted July to September 2023 Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates on the 14th November 2023, instead they would publish, like in October, a set of experimental adjusted headline estimates based on growth rates from Pay as You Earn Real-Time Information and the Claimant Count. The new series includes data for the latest three 3-monthly periods (May to July 2023, June to August 2023 and July to September 2023) at a UK level. In addition, a UK regional breakdown was also published.

ONS’s intention is to reintroduce LFS estimates in December 2023.

Response rates to the Northern Ireland LFS continue to be robust and NISRA considers that the survey in Northern Ireland continues to provide the best possible indicators for the local labour market.

NISRA will continue to work collaboratively with the ONS and other National Statistics Institutes across the UK on the production of key labour market indicators.

Transformation of the Labour Force Survey in Northern Ireland

Information relating to the tranformation of the LFS can be accessed from the Labour Force Survey Transformation page.